21.45, Main Stage

Grizzled veterans METALLICA are pummelling out the classics of a twenty-year career to the delight of thousands of rabid fans, but, although I can appreciate that the likes of ‘Welcome Home (Sanitarium)’, ‘Seek And Destroy’ and ‘Sad But True’ are taken from albums which defined and shaped the course of metal, to these ears and in comparison with System Of A Down they just sound rather stodgy and workmanlike. What is particularly revealing is that only two songs in the entire set are taken from new LP St Anger (‘St Anger’ and ‘Frantic’), and that these are safely inserted somewhere in the middle – that doesn’t exactly suggest a wealth of confidence, faith and belief in the new material, now, does it?